Kimberly’s Foil
A MAGA Cosmetic Journey
One can track the MAGA evolution in the cosmetic surgery of the members of MAGA, in particular the women and specifically Kimbely Guilfoyle. It seems there is an epidemic of bad choices in facial change and body enhancements, and it has a name - Mara Lago Face. Some things get bigger and some things, not many, get smaller. The list of MAGA women in this trend keeps a healthy pace with Hollywood. One can see it in the others such as fellow travelers in Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Alina Habba, Lara Trump, and Karoline Leavitt, to name a few.
One can see the hideous transformation from the wife of Gavin Newsom to the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr to the being banished to Greece. The relationship change is bad enough,but the facial transformation is much worse. Is it some form of blackmail against Gavin Newsom by the Trump campaign or revenge cosmetic surgery gone wrong? It could be said that MAGA kept Kimberley around to keep Gavin Newsom in check or whether it was self-inflicted wound by Kimberley Guilfoyle that MAGA encouraged because they knew she was disposable in time. Some conjecture that bad taste in clothing choices and overuse of cosmetic surgery, beyond the typical Mara Lago face, indicated that her usefulness was over and she was shipped off to Greece, the land of Onassis and other sugar daddies. Ineteresting iming that Donald Junior dumped her right after the election.
But the most jarring aesthetic in this burgeoning MAGA stagecraft is the unbridled embrace of face-altering procedures: plastic surgery, veneers, and injectables like Botox and fillers.
Numerous commentators have waded in.
(As one Daily Mail headline declared, “Plastic surgery was [the] star of [the] show” at the Republican National Convention in 2024.) The overall look has since been disparagingly referred to as “Mar-a-Lago face.”
“What we’re seeing with something like Mar-a-Lago face is a swing back toward [an era of plastic surgery when] people can tell that people have had work done,” Alka Menon, a professor of sociology at Yale University, told me.
“I read it as a sign of physical submission to Donald Trump, a statement of fealty to him and the idea that the surface of a policy is the only thing that matters,” says Anne Higonnet, a professor of art history at Barnard College. “In a way, these women are performing a key part of Donald Trump’s whole political persona.”
Plastic surgery has no political boundaries, with dermatologist Tina Alster admitting to the Hollywood Reporter that "everybody gets some tweaking." However, the rate and extent to which women (and some men) in the MAGA sphere alter their appearances to a mutated "Stepford Wives" degree is pretty prevalent. It's to the point that even young rising stars like Karoline Leavitt are rocking duck lips and signs of Botox while still being in their 20s.
The bubble of hate within MAGA apparently extends to a self-loathing in the dire need to change one’s appearance. One of the many things any good plastic surgeon would want you to know is that fads come and go, and this particular trend could be very costly not only to get, but also to fix should anyone suffer from buyer's remorse.